CAS AN 102 Study Guide - Final Guide: James Hutton, Subfossil, Taphonomy
27 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Major types of data: fossil-bearing sites, fossils, artifacts. How are fossils formed: animal dies, just bones remain, trampling or tumbling occurs, covered by sediment, petrification, erosion uncovers fossil. Fossils are rare and represent a small fraction of past life. Must have unique conditions of preservation, volcano, flood, etc to fossilize. Teeth and jaws are more likely to be recovered. Taphonomy: the study of what happens to the remains of an animal from the time of death to time of discovery. Stratigraphy: study of the order of rock layers and the sequence of events they reflect. Uniformitarianism: geological processes going on today happened in the past. Synthesized principles of geology: principles of stratigraphy, principle of original horizontality: all of earth"s layers are laid down parallel to the. Geological time: earth"s history is divided up into manageable unites: eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Primates showed up in the fossil records around 55 million years ago.
